ASUS ROG TYTAN Gaming Desktop PC Review
August 8, 2012 by Taimoor Hafeez
Filed under Desktop PC, Gaming Systems, Reviews, Spotlight
Complete gaming desktops are, at least in this region, synonymous with brand names like Alienware or, more recently, HP with their Phoenix PCs. Today, however, I’ll be looking at ASUS’ ROG CG8580 gaming desktop, who, after years of making some of the highest regarded components for PCs, have decided to go full on into providing a complete system.
The ASUS ROG CG8580 is a complete gaming system packed with a mechanical keyboard and 4000 DPI laser mouse. No monitor or headset, but the bulk of the money you’re paying for is, of course, the main case and all the goodies inside.
The Build
The ROG CG8580’s case is similar to ASUS’ Republic of Gamers branded laptops, with angular edges, and a smooth matt black coating; the design is actually inspired from stealth submarines.
On the top you have 2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 ports, plus two 3.5mm audio jacks. On the right side is the power button and on the left is the ‘Speed’ button which basically allows you to switch the CPU speed from 4.2GHz to 4.4GHz to 4.6GHz, but more on that later.
Push open the hydraulic front panel and inside you’ll see a memory card reader, Blu-ray/ DVD combo drive and a hot-swappable 3.5-inch drive bay. Push it back up and you see the glowing ROG logo, and at the very bottom of the case there’s another LED strip that matches the color of the logo on top. The logo and bottom strip glows blue when the speed is set to 4.2GHz, and red for both 4.4GHz and 4.6GHz.
Inside the ROG CG8580 is some serious hardware, sadly the case doesn’t come with a side window for you to appreciate it.
The Specs
So what we have is an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU, ASint 16GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM, ASUS Nvidia GTX 680 with 2GB GDDR5 RAM, 2x SanDisk 128GB SSDs in RAID 0, 2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDDs, 1x Xonar DX sound card, and all of this is plugged into an ASUS P8Z77-PRO motherboard powered by an AcBell R88 700W PSU.
I was actually disappointed to see that there was no ROG series motherboard and graphics card used for the ROG CG8580 PC. Most definitely you can look at the individual component prices picked from Newegg (and other online stores) below to see how much the system would have cost if components were handpicked.
That amounts to roughly AED 8.5K if we had bought the components in UAE. Of course, this price doesn’t include the cool casing from ASUS, or the labor costs for assembling the system, getting it ready for fail-proof overclock of up to 4.6GHz at the touch of a button, the 3 year warranty and peace of mind that your high-end system is completely covered.
Operations
Turning on the ASUS ROG CG8580 you’ll hear the startup sound of the system akin to a jumbo jet starting up for takeoff, except the ROG CG8580 quiets down in 10 seconds to absolute silence and you’re flying to Windows 7 desktop in just 14 seconds. The ROG logo on the front glows blue and you’re all good to go. All you need is a decent monitor and a pair of headphones (or speakers) and the Xonar DX soundcard will make anything sound amazing.
Pressing the Speed button will open a full screen popup for under 2 seconds denoting the processor speed (4.2GHz/4.4GHz/4.6GHz) and then you can go back to work. You can change the processor speed in real-time, so whether you’re playing a game or converting videos, you can feel the improvement instantly at the touch of a button.
Google’s self-driving cars logs in 300,000 miles
August 8, 2012 by Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Filed under News
August 8, 2012 by Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Filed under News
And Google said, let there be self-driving cars! And in a flash of thunderous dollars, there were self-driving cars…!
The search giant has said that its wondrous, we-can’t-wait-till-its-mainstream self-driving cars have logged in 300,000 miles of accident-free testing on actual roads. That’s better than 100% of drivers in Sharjah – that is indeed quite amazing.
Despite the milestone, Google says there’s still a long way to go. The testings have only been done on normal, drivable roads – snow-caked roadways, temporary construction signals and lane-less Sharjah roads are yet to master. As a next step, the company will soon allow members of the self-driving cars to go on solo rides, rather than in pairs, for things like commuting to work. Google hopes that one day “this capability will enable people to be more productive in their cars.”
We would like that, yes.
Paparazzo Light turns your iPhone into old-fashioned press camera
Ever wish your iPhone flash did something better than flood-fill all your photos with light? Well here’s your chance to get some great looking photos AND look like you’re part of the paparazzi of another era, thanks to the Paparazzo Light.
The Paparazzo Light connects to your iPhone 4/4S and produces an even flash for all of your iPhone photography. Powered by two CR 123 batteries and a 300 Lumen LED, it can be instantly adjusted to whatever brightness you need, and adds some serious vintage kick to your already-hip iPhone. The project is currently seeking funding of $50,000 via KickStarter to begin manufacturing, and is currently close to $9,000 of their goal.
Check out more information on the Paparazzo Light by clicking here.
ASUS Republic of Gamers TYTAN CG8580 PC
August 8, 2012 by Taimoor Hafeez
Filed under Product of the Week
Attain gaming domination with ROG TYTAN CG8580 Desktop PC, powered by the Intel® Core i7-3770K and Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium. Always stay ahead through exclusive quad-core CPU boosting and twin 128 GB SATA 3 SSD with RAID 0 for 4X faster data access speed than HDD. Put yourself in the action with immersive and seamless HD visual and audio powered by GTX 680 graphics card with 2GB GDDR5 and ASUS Xanor DX audio card.
